Jung also highlighted the South Korean military’s personnel shortage, especially among noncommissioned officers and officers expected to help train new conscripts to use drones.

Lessons from Ukraine

It’s worth noting that Ukraine, the model for so many countries’ military reform efforts, does not field a military where everyone is trained to be a drone pilot—although Ukraine has scaled up training to produce tens of thousands of drone operators.

Instead, Ukraine’s effective use of military drones comes from having widely deployed specialized drone operator teams to back up front-line infantry units, standing up the Unmanned Systems Forces branch of the military to develop drone doctrine and coordinate deep strike campaigns, creating a digital battle management system that provides updated battlefield information for rapid decision-making, and developing a homegrown drone industry that can mass produce millions of drones each year while nimbly innovating in response to changing battlefield conditions.

Meanwhile, North Korean soldiers who survived their encounters with Ukrainian drone warfare while fighting on Russia’s side have already been rotating back home to instruct the North Korean military. Though it’s less clear what kind of training lessons they may be imparting to their comrades.

At the same time, South Korean troops are not alone in facing off against the North Korean military. There are currently 28,500 US troops stationed in South Korea as a legacy of the US military intervention on South Korea’s side during the Korean War, which began with a North Korean invasion.

Taking its own cue from Ukraine’s drone innovations, the US military has also been integrating drone familiarization and counter-drone measures into basic training for its own new recruits, while the Pentagon has requested $54 billion for new drone and counter-drone systems in its fiscal year 2027 budget.